Drugs tied to lower risk with postmenopausal hormones and excess weight
In postmenopausal women with excess weight, gut-hormone drugs were linked to 31% and 42% lower relative risks versus nonuse alongside systemic estrogen-only and estrogen-plus-progesterone therapy, respectively.
Our read
Interventions- Studied:
- Study in people
- Why it’s aging research:
- It studies an intervention with evidence of extending healthy life.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Postmenopausal women with overweight or obesity receiving systemic hormone therapy were compared in an observational analysis of US health records. Researchers paired 1,016 women starting glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists—drugs that mimic a gut hormone—with 1,016 nonusers receiving estrogen alone. Their mean ages were 53.9 and 53.7 years. They also paired 1,072 starters with 1,072 nonusers receiving estrogen plus progesterone; mean ages were 53.7 and 53.4 years.
The researchers matched women on 40 baseline characteristics and followed them for up to three years. Starting the drugs was associated with a lower combined risk of death, stroke or venous thromboembolism, meaning blood clots in veins. Neither hormone group had statistically significant differences in these outcomes individually. Pneumonia and soft tissue infection also did not differ significantly.
Why it matters
Hormone therapy after menopause increases stroke and vein-clot risks. The authors called for randomized studies to test whether these drugs modify those risks.
Caveats
Health differences between drug starters and nonusers that matching did not capture could have influenced the results. Reported in a conference abstract, the findings concern women with a body mass index of at least 27 receiving systemic hormones, not women using only vaginal or topical hormones.
The paper
Yale Sch of Medicine; Northwestern Univ
AHA Scientific Sessions 2026 Abstract, Nov 2, 2026
Presented at AHA Scientific Sessions 2026, abstract 11429
Comments
Be the first to comment.